What do Rogan, Shapiro, and Peterson have in Common?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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September 15, 2020

00:04: Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:06: This program is dedicated to helping you better understand the Word of God and the doctrines of grace.
00:12: The Bible tells us, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
00:20: Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to study along.
00:23: Here's your host with today's lesson, Pastor Keith Foskey.
00:27: And welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
00:30: My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
00:33: Today is September 15, 2020.
00:38: And if you're following along in our daily Bible reading, today you're going to be reading from 1 Peter chapter 2.
00:44: If you'd like a copy of our daily Bible reading, which is taking you one chapter a day through the New Testament, you can find that at our website, sgfcjacks.org.
00:56: That is the website for Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville, where I am the pastor.
01:03: And I want to personally also invite you, if you are in the Jacksonville area and would like to come and worship with us this coming Lord's Day, we would love to have you.
01:12: We have Sunday school at 9.30 a.m.
01:15: and we have worship at 10.30 a.m.
01:18: Or if you'd like to join us for a midweek service, we have Bible study on Wednesday nights at 6.30 p.m.
01:26: If you have any questions, please feel free to go to the website, send us a message, and you can learn more about us there.
01:33: Well today's Tuesday, and that means it's pop culture day.
01:38: We're going to be talking about a pop culture subject.
01:41: And I want to begin today's program with a question.
01:46: And the question goes like this.
01:48: What do Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson all have in common? What do Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson all have in common? Now right away, you may not know who those people are, but I imagine that many of you probably do.
02:10: If you've never heard of them, Joe Rogan has the number one podcast in the world, at least I think last time I checked, it was the most listened to podcast in the world.
02:22: He is also a television star.
02:26: He's also big with mixed martial arts.
02:28: He is a black belt in Taekwondo and Jiu-Jitsu, and he has a lot of experience in the martial arts and he has a lot of notoriety there.
02:37: And so a lot of people know him through either his podcast or through his television and movies.
02:43: He was the host of Fear Factor.
02:45: He was also on a television show called News Radio.
02:49: So many people know who Joe Rogan is.
02:51: And then Ben Shapiro of course is not a television star, not in the same way, but Ben Shapiro is a political commentator.
02:59: He is very famous, especially among conservatives for being very quick witted and having a lot of very good answers to very difficult questions.
03:12: And Ben Shapiro is, according to his page on Wikipedia, he is an American conservative political commentator, media host, and attorney.
03:24: At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States.
03:30: So many of you have probably heard of Ben Shapiro.
03:33: And the last one that I mentioned is Jordan Peterson.
03:37: Now Jordan Peterson, of these three, may be one that you maybe haven't heard of.
03:43: But Jordan Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.
03:49: And he has received a lot of attention over the last few years because of his cultural and political views.
03:59: He has made some very outspoken statements that have been not very well received by the left, particularly.
04:07: And he is quite popular with people on the right, conservatives, even though he himself would probably not identify himself as a conservative.
04:20: Because of what he says, often agreeing with conservative positions, often gets a lot of conservatives liking what he says.
04:28: And I did last year, I read his book, 12 Rules for Life, and on a future program of Coffee with a Calvinist, I do plan on giving a review of what I thought of the book.
04:39: But that's not the subject of today.
04:41: The question of today, these are three men of wildly different thoughts and wildly different backgrounds.
04:49: You have a martial arts podcaster, you have a political commentator and attorney, and you have a psychologist and professor in these three men.
05:01: But yet I would say they have something in common.
05:03: And this was pointed out to me, I want to give credit where this is due.
05:07: I read a post, someone posted, about the connection between men like these.
05:14: It mentioned these men, it mentioned some other men.
05:17: And it really got my attention, it said, what is the thing that all of these have in common? And the thing that all of these men seem to have in common is that they are very popular with young men.
05:31: They are very popular with young men.
05:32: Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson seem to be getting a lot of attention from young men.
05:39: And not only young men, but young Christian men.
05:44: Men who identify themselves as Christian are often fans of Shapiro, they're fans of Peterson.
05:51: And some of them, even though Rogan is a devout atheist, he believes that there is no God and no reason for God, even though I would say as a presuppositionalist, I would say he knows God exists and he is suppressing that truth in unrighteousness, because that's what Romans 1 tells us, it says all men know God exists, no one has an excuse to deny the existence of God.
06:13: But someone like Joe Rogan would identify himself at least as an atheist, and I've heard him say that on several occasions, that he doesn't believe, at least he says he doesn't believe in the existence of God.
06:26: So we have different positions here.
06:30: Shapiro is a Jewish man, he wears a yarmulke, a very pronounced Jewish person, he's not afraid to express his faith.
06:42: And Peterson, in his book, he talks a lot about the Bible, but he certainly is not a conservative Christian.
06:50: So here's three men, none of these men are conservative Christians, and yet I have noticed they have the ear of a lot of Christians.
07:02: And the question is why? Why these men, and why are they so popular, why are they popular with men, and what can that teach us as believers, and what can that teach us particularly as Christian men? If you're a Christian man listening to this, I want you to think about what I'm about to say, because I think it's very important.
07:24: I think the reason why Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson are so popular among young men, and even conservative Christian men, is because these men are a voice for masculinity in a world that is consumed with feminine ideology and feminine thinking.
07:54: We have been taught and we have been conditioned to believe that masculinity is wrong and that femininity is right.
08:07: We have been conditioned to take everything that is good about manhood and suppress it, and everything that is good about womanhood and exalt it and appreciate it, and so men have been, to the point of being pushed down, I want to say it like this, men have been degraded in regard to those things that are masculine and good and powerful and positive, and the exact opposite, so the pendulum certainly has shifted, certainly within my lifetime.
08:45: I think the reason why men like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson are so popular is because they provide a masculine voice.
08:55: They are saying things that men want to say, but they are afraid to say, because either they don't know how to articulate what they want to say, and then they hear somebody like Jordan Peterson who articulates himself very well, or they hear somebody like Ben Shapiro who is just so quick, and they say, wow, I want to be like that, or they hear somebody like Joe Rogan who may not be as articulate, but certainly has strength.
09:25: Joe Rogan is a beast of an individual.
09:29: He has demonstrated his strength in his martial arts training.
09:35: He's demonstrated his strength in so many other areas, and of course now he dominates the podcast market, and so you have these men who are expressing and displaying strength either intellectually or simply verbally, and men see that, and they gravitate towards that, and they see it as something that's positive, and so these men become heroic in their sight, and again, this teaches us something.
10:06: This teaches us what men are looking for.
10:09: Men are looking for heroes.
10:12: Men are looking for men to look up to, men of strength, men of intellect, men of knowledge, and men who aren't afraid to be men.
10:23: I want you to, for a moment, if you are sitting next to your Bible, and hopefully many of you are.
10:29: I hope this is part of your daily routine, and maybe you're sitting down with your coffee, this coffee with the Calvinists.
10:34: I'm expecting you've got a cup of coffee and a Bible.
10:37: I want you to turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
10:43: In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul is giving some admonitions to the church at Corinth.
10:50: This is finishing out the chapter, and he says, as he is finishing out the chapter in verse 13, so this is 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13.
11:01: He says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, and the phrase act like men is one word in the Greek, and the translation is from the root of man, and it literally means to have the attitude or the expressions of a man, the behavior of a man, and I've always thought this verse is important, because some other translations might translate this phrase, be brave, or be strong, but understand this.
11:42: At the root of the word that Paul uses, the word here is man, and that's the root, and so in this is the concept, even if it should be translated be brave, the picture of bravery is the picture of a man.
12:02: The idea of bravery is manhood.
12:05: That's what men should be, is they should be brave, and we used to feel like that was okay to teach our young boys, but now we have to teach them how to get in touch with their femininity, we teach them how to get in touch with their emotions, and we neglect to teach them how to be men, and so this is something I think young men yearn for, and they're looking for voices in the world to provide for them a voice of manhood, and so they gravitate toward what the world provides, because they're not finding it often in the church.
12:49: And I want to say this, I listen to a lot of preachers, and I am really starting to pick up on the fact that so many of the voices in evangelicalism, though they are male voices, they are feminine sounding voices.
13:11: They are voices that are, everything is so emotive, everything is so emotional, everything is so dripping sweet from the honeycomb, and I think the thing is, we have become an emasculated people, and among the men, we have become emasculated, and I'm really just in my heart seeing this as a failure.
13:41: We need to be a people, we need to be men and speak like men and speak with strength, and in no way is this denigrating females, and in no way is this denigrating the feminine, but men do not need to be feminine, they do not need to behave as women, and they don't need to talk as women, they need to act like men.
14:06: That's what the Bible says, and that's what I'm encouraging today.
14:10: So I want to, in this program, I want to provide for you a few thoughts of some people that you might could listen to that I think are providing voices of manhood in a time of, where there's a lot of feminine voices out there, there's a lot of men who sound like they are not men, they sound like they are weak, and they're not strong voices, and so again, I'm not trying to insult anybody, I'm not naming names today, that's not what this is about, I'm not naming the names of the negatives.
14:54: I'm going to give you some positives to look toward, and I'm going to say, you know what, instead of spending our time, and maybe you are a person who spends your time with Joe Rogan or Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson, and maybe you find value in what they're saying, and I'm not telling you don't do that, even though I would say Joe Rogan does get off color sometimes, and even Jordan Peterson as well, but my point is that these men are not Christian voices, these men are conservative voices, there is a distinction to be made there, because while they may be saying a lot of the same things that we say as believers, they are coming to this from an unbiblical worldview, and all one need do is listen to them talk about Christianity, and you immediately see where their worldview divide is.
15:41: I mean, you listen to Joe Rogan talk about Christianity, you'll know right away he's not a Christian.
15:45: You read Jordan Peterson's book, you'll know right away he's not a Christian.
15:49: They don't claim to be, so I'm not charging them with falsehood, I'm just saying, and you watch the interview with Ben Shapiro and John MacArthur, John MacArthur of course sharing the gospel with Ben Shapiro, a Jew, and then of course later on Ben Shapiro goes on another program, says he's not convinced, and so we understand these are not Christian voices, so who can you listen to? Who can be those voices? I think the one that comes into my mind right away is a brother by the name of Paul Washer.
16:18: Many of you know who Paul Washer is.
16:21: Paul Washer is a pastor.
16:22: He has a sermon that is called the Shocking Youth Message, and it's the message that genuinely reached out and grabbed many people by the soul, and just reminded them of the truth of the gospel and how many people have missed the truth of the gospel, and so if you've never heard the Shocking Youth Message by Paul Washer, go listen to it.
16:44: It's worth your time, but the thing is, some people might say, well, Washer's emotional, and he does get emotional.
16:51: I mean, I've seen him weep in the pulpit, I've seen him break down in the pulpit.
16:55: I'm not telling you that as a man we would never weep.
16:59: I'm not telling you as a man we would never emote, but I am saying this, if you listen to Paul Washer preach, he preaches as a man.
17:07: He preaches the gospel without fear.
17:11: He is brave.
17:13: He is a man of God, and so there is the example that I think that I'm referring to when I say be a man.
17:21: I think the Bible is saying be a man, be brave, and be a masculine voice, and I think if you're looking for a masculine Christian voice, Paul Washer would be a good one.
17:31: Another one, my personal favorite theologian, Dr.
17:35: James White, a lot of people have trouble with Dr.
17:38: White on certain issues.
17:39: They don't like everything he has to say, but let me tell you something, he's speaking a lot of truth, and he is not afraid to speak that truth, and he speaks it strongly and boldly.
17:49: He is a man.
17:50: He is speaking as a man.
17:52: He is an intellect.
17:53: I would say in every way that Jordan Peterson is an intellect, I would say James White is just as much an intellectual.
18:01: If you're looking to not only have for someone to listen to, but you're looking to be intellectually stimulated, you're not going to find much better than James White, and beside him I would say also is someone that I'm becoming increasingly familiar with and someone I'm listening to more and more, and that is Doug Wilson.
18:21: Now again, a lot of people have issues with Doug.
18:23: Doug had some problems years ago with questions about federal visionism, and there were questions about his theology, but Doug is a solid dude in many ways, and he has recently been doing some things with Dr.
18:37: White.
18:37: They have something called, I think it's called the Sweater Vest Commentary or something where the two of them get together and talk about issues of the day.
18:44: It's great stuff, and I know that Doug does something called No Quarter November, where every November he spends several weeks giving podcasts on subjects that are unpopular, but need to be spoken about, and it's powerful stuff, and so I would encourage you, if you've never heard of Doug Wilson, to search him out and see what you think, and again, if you don't like these, if you listen to him and say, this isn't for me, that's fine.
19:12: I'm giving you my personal recommendations for men that I find as godly men, and again, these are all men who preach the gospel, and there are many others.
19:24: Obviously, I could take a step back and I could say, look to somebody like John MacArthur.
19:29: John MacArthur is a man.
19:31: He has been preaching the gospel for so many decades.
19:37: He is right now standing for truth out in California.
19:41: He is a man of God, speaking bravely, so right there is an example, and again, I could go down the list, Votie Balcombe, if you love somebody who just really knows how to hammer it down, Votie is a brother who, he is such a powerful preacher, and he's fun and enjoyable to listen to, and he would be someone who I would say, there's a man, and if you're looking for a martial artist, maybe if you're like me and you have a martial arts background and that appeals to you, Votie is a jujitsu man, and he is a powerful man to listen to, and someone to look up to.
20:25: Our young men need godly men to look up to.
20:29: Now, I want to bring this to a close by saying this.
20:32: I'm pointing to all these men outside, but I want to say something to you.
20:36: If you're a member of Sovereign Grace Family Church, we have some really great men in our church that you can look up to.
20:42: There are some really great men that are there who, I would start with our elders and our deacons, who love the church and who care for the church, and if you're a young person, young man coming into the church, I would encourage you to try to connect with these men, and I know they want to connect with you because that's what we're there for.
21:06: Men teaching men, iron sharpening iron, and again, if you're a lady listening today, I love you.
21:12: This is on my heart today is speaking to men and just thinking this way.
21:19: If you are a young man and you're looking for someone to listen to because you need someone to help you find your voice in this world and you're a believer, those people on the outside that are not believers, they may have good things to say, but look at believers.
21:39: Look at people who share your worldview, and look for men who are preaching the gospel.
21:46: Gospel men.
21:48: And again, there's so many more I could mention.
21:50: I'm going to stop going down the list now, and I'm going to begin to draw to a close and simply say, I hope this has been a topic that has interested you.
22:00: I do plan, I was asked to review a book in the future.
22:05: I think it's called The Masculinity Mandate.
22:07: I'm going to be looking at that book and hopefully reading it as quickly as I can so that I'll be able to review it on the program.
22:15: This subject will come up again in the future, but if you have a question that you'd like me to address on this subject, maybe a question of men and women's roles in the church, men and women's roles in the home, something that you'd like for me to address from scripture, I would love to do that.
22:31: I hope this has been an encouragement to you.
22:34: I hope all of these shows are an encouragement to you, and I hope that it is a blessing to you as much as it is for me to be able to produce these programs for you.
22:44: Thank you again for listening to Coffee with a Calvinist.
22:47: My name is Keith Foskey, and I have been your Calvinist.
22:50: May God bless you.
23:05: Please take a moment to respond by hitting the like button, leaving a comment, and subscribing to the channel.
23:12: On behalf of Pastor Foskey, thank you for listening.
23:17: May God bless you.